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Abstract In this paper the design of an underactuated of the tools and objects are ergonomically designed to fit the
anthropomorphic robotic hand is presented. The hand is highly- shape of human hands it is reasonable to consider bioinspired
underactuated and passively adaptive to the shape of an object, anthropomorphic structure for the design of a robotic hand
due to a tendon-driven mechanism and torsional spring in each which would be capable to manipulate with objects of
finger joint. Each of five fingers has three DOFs (Degrees Of different shapes and sizes. In order to use robotic hands in
Freedom), except the thumb which has an additional DOF, for
the rotation in its base. The fingers are tendon-driven, actuated
unstructured environment they have to possess certain degree
with five DC motors, embedded in the palm. Flexion and of compliance, to deal with possible impacts and collisions,
extension of the little and ring finger are coupled, since they are and passive or active adaptability to different object shapes.
actuated with a single motor. The middle and index finger are Also, the hand should be equipped with force sensing to
actuated with one motor each, while the thumb has one motor manipulate with objects of different mechanical
for flexion/extension and another for the rotation in its base. characteristics, including fragile objects. It is very hard to
Custom made 3-axis force sensors are integrated at the tip and in
the base link of each finger. Force sensors consist of four Hall
design a robotic hand able to perform robust grasps of
sensors and a small permanent magnet in the middle, sealed in a common objects in reliable and repeatable manner, in
silicon base. The design of the robotic hand is highly presence of noise and sensing errors. Despite many research
anthropomorphic and biologically inspired by the human hand. papers and significant progress, this might be still considered
an open problem. Human hand has around 20 DOFs and it is
Index Terms Robot hand, Hand design, Underactuation, characterized with great mobility and dexterity. It is very hard
Force sensors, Adaptive hand. to provide compact and functional design for artificial
anthropomorphic hand with so many DOFs, since it would
demand great volume for actuators. Therefore, many solutions
I. INTRODUCTION
have been proposed for underactuated robotic hands, where
Considering the current trend and goal in robotics research several joints are coupled and actuated with a single actuator.
community to provide working and living coexistence of The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In section II
robots and humans, it is necessary to provide the robots with a an overview of existing robotic hands is given to present the
capability to interact with their environment. The hand plays state of the art in the field. After that, in section III kinematic
very important role in manipulation, which is the most parameters of the robot hand are given. In the next section
fundamental task of humanoid robots. Design of an mechanical design of the proposed robotic hand is described
anthropomorphic robotic hand is a very challenging task. The with an emphasis on the custom made 3-axis force sensor. At
robotic hand is a complex mechatronic device whose design the end, conclusion is given with a brief reference to research
has to provide sufficient dexterity, speed and mass/payload topics for future work.
ratio in presence of multiple constraints imposed on its
weight, size and packaging. Since our environment and most II. OVERVIEW
After few decades significant progress has been made in the
Sran Savi is with the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi
Sad, 6 Trg Dositeja Obradovia, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia (e-mail:
field of artificial hand design, but it is still an open problem
savics@uns.ac.rs). with ongoing research. Development of new materials and
Mirko Rakovi is with the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of new types of actuators is also promising for the next
Novi Sad, 6 Trg Dositeja Obradovia, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia (e-mail:
generation of robotic hands. Some state of the art solutions for
rakovicm@uns.ac.rs).
Marko Peni is with the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of the robotic hand design, characterized by great functionality
Novi Sad, 6 Trg Dositeja Obradovia, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia (e-mail: and dexterity are the Robonaut hand, designed by NASA
mpencic@uns.ac.rs). [1,2], the series of DLR hands of different generations [3-4],
Milutin Nikoli is with the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of
Novi Sad, 6 Trg Dositeja Obradovia, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia (e-mail: The GIFU hand III [5], the UB Hand III [6], Shadow hand [7],
milutinn@uns.ac.rs). Elumotion Hand 2 [8] and many others. Common drawback
Slobodan Dudi is with the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of of these robotic hands is their complex design and high price.
Novi Sad, 6 Trg Dositeja Obradovia, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia (e-mail:
slobodan_dudic@yahoo.com). Mostly they are still large and heavy, and they are not able to
Branislav Borovac is with the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of provide large grasp force, compared to the human hand.
Novi Sad, 6 Trg Dositeja Obradovia, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia (e-mail: Robotic hands can be classified based on several criteria.
borovac@uns.ac.rs).
Considering the type of actuation, most commonly used type
of actuators are servomotors. Vast majority of robotic hands, lock washer shaft torsional spring ball bearing
including the one presented in this paper use this type of
actuators [1-6, 8]. Servomotors are suitable for control, but
have poor mass/payload ratio. Pneumatic artificial muscles
(PAMs) are lightweight and have much better mass/payload
ratio than electric motors. PAMs have similar force
characteristic as human muscles, but the characteristic is 50mm 30mm 25mm
nonlinear. Great advantage of PAMs is their intrinsic a)
compliance, but they need compressed air, which limits the
mobility and manipulability of such robotic hands. Several Hole for tendon Force sensors
dexterous robotic hands that use PAMs for actuation have
been developed [7, 9]. Another solution of the lightweight
artificial hand design, with special flexible fluidic actuators, is
reported in [10]. An innovative design has been proposed for
robotic hand, which uses so called hydraulic cluster actuators
Hole for flat cable Silicon base
[11]. This electro-hydrostatic actuator generates great force,
more than 260 N, yet it is backdrivable. Beside above b)
mentioned actuators, some other types of actuators might also
be used like: piezoelectric actuators, memory alloys and 30 50mm 30mm 27mm
electro-active polymers.
TABLE I
DESIGN SPECIFICATION OF THE HAND
APPENDIX
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was funded by the Ministry of education and
science of the Republic of Serbia under contract III44008 and
by Provincial secretariat for science and technological
development under contract 114-451-2116/2011.
Fig. 7. Six basic types of grasp
REFERENCES